Asylum

The Defund Hate campaign holds a protest in the Russell Rotunda to honor immigrants who died in ICE and CBP detention on Tuesday, June 25, 2019. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Office of Refugee Resettlement have been at the epicenter of the border debate and reports of grisly conditions continue to surface.

A group of nine senators — six Republicans and three Democrats — is proposing a new pilot program to better manage the influx of families seeking asylum at the southwest border.

“Operation Safe Return,” as the group calls it, would be the first bipartisan step to address the situation at the border, the senators said in a letter Thursday to Trump administration officials. Their plan would streamline the process by which migrant families who have legitimate claims for asylum are processed at the border, and swiftly weed out those who do not.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is calling for the Department of Homeland Security to accept donations of soap and diapers at Customs and Border Patrol facilities. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Sen. Ted Cruz is urging the Department of Homeland Security to establish procedures that would allow it and Customs and Border Protection to accept charitable donations of items such as diapers and soap for migrant children being held in border detention facilities.

The Texas Republican wrote a letter to acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan this week, asking him to prioritize accepting donations from concerned Americans.

House Democrats are treading carefully on immigration as they attempt to show they can lead on the divisive issue heading into the 2020 elections.

President Donald Trump, who won election in 2016 on a campaign to crack down on immigration and what he often refers to as “open borders,” is planning to repeat the strategy heading into 2020. In recent weeks, he’s launched near daily attacks on Democrats for their refusal to change immigration laws — an accusation that, as with many things Trump says, is not entirely true.